In need of advice

[cstarkey42]

Hello. I'm new to this whole bit about posting threads, but I'm desperate and irratated as hell. I've been playing the series since civ 2 and have always loved it, but I can't figure out how I'm suppose to win in single player in civ 4 and warlords in the "monarch" difficulty level. I first tried playing it in normal mode and grew frustrated by how quickly everything became obsolete. I've since played in marathon, which is much more my style.
The problem is that, despite how well I seem to be doing in terms of keeping my research above 80%, maintaining a decent army and getting most every major wonder through the classical era I can still fall behind in every catagory and be completely overrun by an advanced society before 1600. The game I just quit, for instance, put my against 6 nations, all of which had sam infantry, broadway, etc... by 1530! I thought I was doing great to have infantry by then when I saw the message "Ragnar has completed broadway". A little research and I discovered just how bad things really were...again.
This happens every time and I don't know what to do. I use to play as Gahndi and get every religion and dominate until this occured and just switched to Germany and again dominated with a respectable army only to see it all come to nothing.
Sorry this threads so long, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I'm all ready to buy "swords" on wed and am worried that, with the emphasis on the later game, I won't even manage a game long enough to enjoy it. Thanks.

 

[Fold]

...and getting most every major wonder through the classical era...

This is probably indicative of a wider problem, namely that you're not focussing your game play enough. On Monarch and above you need to only research and build the things you absolutely need, in order to get to them before the AI, in order to counteract the AI's handicap bonuses.

For example, ask yourself why you need every wonder. Answer = you don't. Eg, there's probably no point in building the Parthenon unless you are going to run a specialist economy (even then, it's hardly required, I only ever consider building it if I'm specifically going for a specialist driven cultural victory). There's no point in building the Oracle unless you have a decent free tech to get out of it (which also requires a very specific dedicated tech path), etc etc...

Also make sure you are making effective use of Slavery in the early game.

 

[Ruler]

Welcome to Monarch, on that level and higher it's all about catching it's not so bad on Monarch but it happens whatever you do you fall behind in everything. Exploring is the key you have to know who's going to be strong and who's not. Why it took you so long to realize that Ragnar was so advanced so it was too late? You should know almost everything about AI a lot sooner before you hit infantry. Basically if one gets too advanced it's going to probably win the sooner you can stop the better but you definitely need to do something to stop it.